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Sunday, Apr 13, 2014

GLORY 15: Exec Cor Hemmers Weighs in on Tyrone Spong’s Injury, Future of Gokhan Saki and Daniel Ghita

Gokhan Saki attending to Tyrone Spong (photo via GLORY)

By FCF Staff

GLORY crowned a new light-heavyweight champion Saturday night in Istanbul, as Gokhan Saki took the title by stopping Tyrone Spong in the card’s tournament final. The championship victory came as a result of Spong breaking his leg, after Saki checked the WSOF fighter’s leg kick attempt.

Saki stopped Nathan Corbet earlier in the night to advance to the tourney finals, while Spong scored a decision win over Saulo Cavalari.

After the event GLORY’s Head of Talent Operations, renowned kickboxing training Cor Hemmers, made the following statements about the fight, Saki, and heavyweight Daniel Ghita (quotes via GLORY press release).

“Our thoughts are with Tyrone and we wish him a speedy recovery. At this stage, we don’t know exactly what the damage to his leg is. We had ambulances on standby and Tyrone was taken to one immediately from the ring, and from there to the hospital. We are waiting for updates from the hospital.”

 

Gokhan Saki (right) attacking Nathan Corbet (photo via GLORY)

“It may be that some people say that Saki won this fight by some sort of luck or fluke. But actually, you must realize that this kind of defense (the shin block) is the textbook defense from Muay Thai and kickboxing. If your opponent throws a kick and you defend perfectly, you will hurt him. It is designed to hurt him so he does not throw that kick any more. Of course, it is rare for a fighter to sustain a serious injury when his opponent blocks him like so, but it does happen – look at Anderson Silva in the UFC recently, for example. It is rare but it is not completely unexpected – this is exactly what such defense is designed to do.”

“We have some people in mind for Saki’s first title defense, but first I think we must let him enjoy the belt for a little while. He beat two world-class opponents in one night to become champion and that is a very special thing. I am sure he is willing to face anybody who is offered to him, so when we have opponents in mind, we will contact him to arrange his next match.”

“Daniel Ghita is number one in the heavyweight division, so of course he will be fighting for the heavyweight title when that belt is placed on the line. We don’t have a match set yet, but there is one opponent who makes very good sense for it. We will announce some news shortly via GloryWorldSeries.com.”

 

posted by FCF Staff @ 12:00 pm
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